Our Daily Bread blog competition

Bread is one of the most messed-up foods on the planet. Made from hybridised wheat, grown for quick-machinability (forget taste, nutrition and digestion), modern bread is subjected to chemical processes you know nothing about.

If you want to freak yourself out, read the list of gunk in an ordinary loaf of sliced bread in Bread Matters by baker Andrew Whitley. Classified as non-nutritive processing aids, their job is not to feed you but to add texture, quickly. Hence the additives (including animal or GM-derived enzymes) do not legally need to be listed on the label.

In real food-world, you need four ingredients: flour, water, a raising agent. The fourth is time. And the result, such as Emma’s bread (see above at Exeter’s farmers’ market), is tasty and sustaining.

Now for the competition. Food bloggers, what’s your favourite real food? Its tastes are enticing but not from a laboratory and it nourishes as nature intended.

The winning blogger (more details below) gets a copy of the new DVD, Our Daily Bread. Released on the 8 September 2008, this award-winning documentary observes without judgement and with an eye for beauty the world of intensive food production. Do we really know how food is made? Our Daily Bread shows what is usually hidden.

Here are the competition guidelines, and good luck, fellow food bloggers.

1. Write a blog on real food (it does not have to be about bread). One ingredient or a dish. Usually factory-made, but you eat the real thing. Baked beans, mashed potato, fresh fish and chicken Kiev come to mind. What’s yours? And extra points for local and organic ingredients.

12 responses to “Our Daily Bread blog competition”

Great idea! Commercially-produced bread is one of my biggest bug bears. It left me with a tummy intolerance for years. OK, too much info but I will most certainly be participating in this event. Now, what real Indian food can I cook…

I love the idea and I’m thrilled that there are continuous people out there sharing what REAL food is. It always amazes me how “natural” or “organic” seems so foreign to people these days. We need more information, blogs and videos out there like this. Another film that you might want to do a search on is “Food Matters”. It was screened in Toronto about a month ago and sold out at a local cinema.

Keep up the good work. It’s real and exactly what people need in today’s world. Love real WHOLE food and most importantly, alway maintain balance.

I love making bread – so to enter a competition about it was a real pleasure!
I was on the website today of the flour mill that I use, and see they are starting to do chestnut flour – they have even written a recipe for a loaf of bread for their customers as well. Jane Grigson wrote about chestnut flour – she said it was used to make a mealy porridge many years ago when times were hard- bread sounds a far more interesting prospect for today’s consumer. I made rolls earlier, with a malted grain flour – from the UK! They look like boulders and taste divine. Yes, real bread, like real food is they only thing to eat.

Edgedance,
My name is Naomi Huth. I came across your comments for the “Grains of Tradition” article in Gourmet and I’m hoping that you can help me. I’m starting work on a project for the Rubin Museum of Art in New York City to create a film series about food from the Himalayan region ( Bhutan , Nepal , India , Pakistan , Tibet , Afghanistan , Mongolia , Burma , Iran , and China. ). It’s part of a series called “Lunch Matters” which is about an hour and takes place during lunch time. It is usually a half hour film and a moderator who speaks for awhile as well. I’m trying to find short films that are interesting as well as people who might come in to speak. I was hoping that you would have some ideas as to film that might be about Himalayan foods and some of the work that you’ve been doing. I was also wondering if you might know anyone around the New York areas that have an interest on speaking or could help me out with more information..